Clearing out the liberal nuns and folks looking to make the Church 'relevant', went a long way toward making Seminaries look attractive to young men who were looking to serve the Lord. Too many had been turned away in the past 30 years, considered to be too 'immature' because they didn't follow the attitudes of the 'sophisticates' running the Seminaries then. In some Seminaries, young men who survived the original vetting process found they were ostracized if they went against the liberal attitudes they found prevalent, or weren't interested in being propositioned by male faculty or other Seminarians.
I’d like to think it began with Benedict XVI who has given orthodoxy and tradition a new impetus and has invigorated the re-introduction of sacred music and liturgical practices. Clerical ordinations and women religious orders have grown among those committed to strict and formal liturgical forms and habits. Benedictine motto: “When pruned, it grows.”
On sign that the Vatican II reforms had gone awry was the emptying of the seminaries. Those faithful priests who remained were demoralized and most stopped trying to recruit young men to replace them. The liberals de-emphasized the priesthood, even adopted the protestant view that it was a historical creation rather than Apostolic in origin. So we have laypeople handed many of the functions of the priest and of course the cry for a married priesthhood and women priests.John Paul “s great achievement was turning that around. His great gify was to make young men say: Look at him! I want to be like him. He spurred the same ambition in young priests, making them want tom be bishops like him. Now we have bishops who are actively trying to fill up their seminaries. This was not true thirty years ago,not in many dioceses.
Since the Pope sent emissaries to investigate and clean up the seminaries, they have a wonderful problem — not enough room!
Now the emissaries are going to investigate the liberal and other nuns. May they soon experience this same problem with nuns wearing habits and serving the Lord as He wishes!